The love for your Investment

Opening

1 kings 17:12: And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in  and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

1. She: represents the Church

2. The SON: represents the Ministry or the Investment.

1 kings 17:13 – 14: And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. 14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.

Why did Elijah say this?

Pride

1kings 17: 1 – 11: And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

Elijah began to build up pride…

2 And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

The Lord was telling Elijah get on the right side; get back to doing My Word! Not yours; Hide thyself or lower thyself or humble thyself or get down.

4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.5 So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

The Lords provides for His people, 24/7 He controls nature.

7And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

I believe what this verse is saying is that Elijah is still being held by his own word, God is trying to show Elijah something by doing this…

8And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.

What Elijah did here what happened is God has given Elijah a church, as brought a church before Elijah.

1kings17:15 – 16: And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.

A.           Investments: souls are what we are investing in church as a body.

B.Truck analogy: When you put sweat and tears and hard work into buying a dream car you tend to take care of it and love it more because you know the hard work it took.

C. “We Pray for sinners, but we expect saints”

D.           Love: loving your investment, loving souls.

E. “Miracles always begin with an impossibility”

F.  Gods will: the cross His death bed Referrer to song sung by Bro. Charles and Sister Carmen.

G.           “Going out on a limb”: analogy

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1. What do you do when you get a paycheck?

2. In whom are you depositing into?

3. Pastor as deposited into us a 6 week bible study teaching…How many Bible studies have you done? don’t raise your hand, but how many? How many have I done? 0 I’m telling you the truth now, I’m preaching truth now.

1kings17:17 And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.

A.“Vision of art room”

B.         “The cross as a store”

II

“Fear tolerated is faith contaminated”

a.  Frustration is to pride as aggravation is to humility

b. “The recepical of Faith is Fear”

c.   Still under the same law or the same system.

d. Tell story of conversation at work

e.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God

f.    Fear comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the devil.

1kings17:18 – 19And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?

In this verse she is letting out her frustration on Elijah

19 And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and he carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.

A.           Bosom represents her heart: Passion for souls.

B.Caring him to a upper loft represents higher level: the next step!

C. His own bed represents where the boy is comfortable: is at rest!

1kings17:20 And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?

In this verse Elijah releases his aggravation to God.

1kings17:21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.

A.            Paul in the New Testament did this method as well. Could it be that God himself did this in the old testament? In “Gen.2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the Ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul!!!!”

1kings17:22 And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

B.I no longer live, but Christ lives threw me.

1kings17:23 – 24 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth

C. He brought the child back to the church and said “see” which another way of saying “Believe.”

And in verse 24 by her saying Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth is to show you she didn’t believe in verse 15, she didn’t believe it was fully God… it took a miracle of life and revival for her to believe, for the church to believe.

The bible says in Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.